“What do you mean you don’t remember what Sandra said,” Mimi shouted getting into Jordan’s face.

        They had been at each other’s throats after we all sat in the car unsure of what directions to give Guy. All of us sat in the truck watching everyone shout at each other. With all the separate conversations my neck was starting to hurt from looking back and forth between the two of them.

        “I wasn’t the only one there Mimi. Maybe you should have paid more attention,” Jordan spat back at her in the backseat.

        Zack sat awkwardly in the middle of the feuding girls. Each of them opened their mouths widely shouting and spewing spit with every word. I’d never seen either of them this upset or uptight about anything. Usually Jordan was hyper or completely calm; this was a horrible fluctuation no one had seen before.       

        “Everyone just shut up,” Guy shouted looking into the backseat.

        Guy was nice enough to drive all of us around even though he had alternative motives. Dee and Adam were best friends and Guy was the jealous boyfriend. His reasoning made sense but there wasn’t much I could do about it besides threaten Dee and keep Adam’s eyes on me. She terrified me almost as much as Stella. I looked like she could take any biker in a bar fight with her hands behind her back.

        “Well why don’t you just text Stella since you already have your nose up her ass,” Jordan yelled going further then I ever would.

        She had called Mimi out on having a conversation with Stella but I wasn’t prepared to give away my secret weapon. Mimi not knowing what was inside my brain was something I had over her.  

        “What is she talking about Mimi?” I asked looking confused at Mimi.

        She stumbled over the words she wanted to say in attempt to save her own skin. Her eyes glared in Jordan’s direction before looking back at me. The two blue eyes looked across the truck into the distance as if the correct words would appear in thin air like a teleprompter.

        “I’m trying to win. Just like everyone else I’m treading water praying Stella won’t hold my head under. So what if I kiss a little ass,” Mimi shouted and it almost sounded genuine.

        Maybe Mimi would be able to turn everything around. I had caught Mimi almost making a deal with the devil but I had to ask myself, if Stella made me a proposition to end everything, would I take it? It was a difficult question that I wasn’t prepared to answer. After Mimi spoke the car when quiet until Guy cleared his throat.

        “I hope you guys realize that I actually have a life and I have no intention of actually getting mixed up with all your stupid bullshit,” Guy grunted leaning back with his hands resting on the steering wheel.

        “So where do we go?” Everyone turned to look at me as if I had all the answers.

        “Guy can I barrow your phone?” Looking directly at the alternative boy I kept my hand extended.

        Reluctantly he handed over the ancient cell phone that was as heavy as holding a brick to my ear. There was something deep inside my chest that hoped after all this time nothing had changed.

        “Hello,” Sandra answered on her cell phone.

        Sandra may have died her hair and changed her clothes but her cell phone number had stayed the same. I exhaled a deep breath of relieve. Even after my fingers had dialed the number I hadn’t thought about what I was supposed to say.    

        “Where are we supposed to go?” I asked her not sure what exactly we were supposed to do now.

        “You guys didn’t pay that close attention to what I said did you?” Sandra asked laughing.

        I was listening very closely to what she was saying now. It was obvious that she was no longer in the mall due to the lack of buzzing that was happening in the background. There was someone else there speaking very softly.

        “We completed the challenge but you didn’t say what we needed to do after,” I questioned her still very confused about what she was talking about.

        “What did I say before that?” Sandra asked and the light bulb went off in my head. 

        “The trunk of my car; we were supposed to put my bags in the back of my car,” I exclaimed finally being able to figure this out.

        “Well I would have put them in my trunk if someone hadn’t slashed my tires. I was a little preoccupied,” I scoffed and Sandra just snickered in return.

        “If you want to win you’re going to have to start realizing that Stella will not stop until you’re humiliated. The only way to win this war is humiliating her first. You have people to help you Eden but everything is riding on you. Now I have to go just get here as quick as you can.” The click of the other end told me that Sandra was gone.

        Someone, most likely Stella had walked into the room. Sandra was my friend on the inside. It seemed strange to me that the friends that I thought were true friends were turning out to be liars and the friend who abandoned me was showing true concern and passion. I’d never understood that concept of knowing who your true friends were but I was starting to.

        “We have to head back to the mall,” I told Guy and he put the truck in drive.

        It was a quiet drive to the parking lot back to my red beetle. All four tires were still deflated the silver sparkling rims were almost touching the ground. I jumped out of the truck unlocking my car and climbing into the back. Right in the middle of the empty space was a pink envelope. Snatching it up I read the contents.

        It was only a couple numbers and the words ‘go here for more instructions’. They were coordinates.

        Jumping back into the small dirt covered truck I let out a sigh. Stella was making us drive around everywhere. Today was equivalent to a wild goose chase. None of us knew what was happening and each of us were on our toes. At any moment Stella could strike and leave all of us social rejects.

        “Do you have a GPS?” I asked Guy showing him the card.

        Guy rolled his eyes obviously irritated that he would have to drive us around for a little while longer. I gave him a sharp look telling him that I meant business. If Guy wanted me to distract Adam he was going to have to put up with us. The fact that he was willing to do all of this showed me how worried he was about their friendship.

        “It is somewhere in the back seat.” Looking back at the three individuals in the back they looked down at the floor in disgust.

        Food wrappers, tools and textbooks littered the floor of the truck. It was the outside and the inside of the truck that was filthy. A large contraption was in the box of the truck. Unenthusiastically they started to rummage through the trash. Squeals of disgust came from both Jordan and Mimi when they found something most likely growing mold.

        “Found it.” Jordan produced the GPS that had some sticky substance over most of it.

        “You seriously need to clean this thing out.” Jordan tossed the device upwards into the front of the truck.

        Guy knowing how to work it better held up the card typing in the numbers and hitting go. Instantly the device was telling us where we were going. The destination was a red flag on a screen located roughly forty-five minutes from our currently location.

        “Jesus really,” Guy exclaimed before he started to drive.

        All of us sat mostly quiet unless Jordan had one of her strange outbursts of energy. Mostly when this occurred she stated some random fact that popped into her head. Five minutes in she told us the chemical formula for sugar and most of its derivatives. Fifteen minutes in was acronyms for literary devices. Forty-five minutes in her and Zack discussed a certain bands they had in common.

        “Is she going to be okay?” Guy asked quietly looking in my direction while his truck zoomed down the highway.

        “She is just fine,” I laughed.

        Jordan’s strange way of living and her attitude were growing on me unlike Mimi’s new found similarity to Stella. She said with her arms crossed starring out the window. I kept looking in the review mirror at everyone and then looking at the speed monitor on the truck. We were going 130kms an hour and almost at our destination.

        I was getting more nervous now that we were in our home town. Everything we did now would need to be more cautious. If my parents ever heard about me doing anything close to this I would be grounded. Of course they were happy I was out of the house but they would never expect these types of activities from me.

        “We are almost there.” Guy said as my eyes took in where we were.

        I knew exactly where we were. Behind my school there was a small back road that leads to the back of the school. Most students didn’t use this area unless they were trying to sneak out of school. Regal High was located almost on the outskirts of town. They thought it would be more productive if the school was more isolated. There were soccer fields, football fields and baseball fields that surrounded the school. The nearest houses could just see the school in the distance.

        The coordinates put us near the football field near the bleachers. It was used for extra parking when they held games. There were at least six other cars parked there filled with people.

        As soon as we pulled up into the parking lot a car door opened and Stella, Sandra and Nancy stepped out. Following her everyone else did as well. It seemed as if we were the last contestants of the Stella games to arrive.

        Stella was soon surrounded by people before any of us were able to get out of the truck. Guy and Zack had chosen to stay inside the safety of the truck. Most likely Zack was hiding from Stella.

        “Gather around losers.” Sandra gestured for all of us to head over and join the group of everyone else.

        It was easy to tell that everyone had been at the food court mainly because all of us were wearing stained clothing. Hopefully we were allowed to change before this party was being thrown.

        “So now it is time for your next challenge.” She smiled a wicked smile at all of us; it was enough to make me cringe.

        “If you idiots hadn’t figured out this is where we are throwing the party but there is one thing we need to get rid of first,” Stella said and she continued with her sentence but I was stuck on the first part of her sentence.

        We were throwing the party at the school. How could we even do this? This seemed completely impossible.

        “There are janitors that we need to take care of. It is three a clock and we have a lot of stuff to get done before people start showing up. The janitorial staff arrived at two a clock and isn’t scheduled to leave until after eight. Now usually we would just wait until they left but we have at least four hours of set up to do so we need to get them out of that school.” She paused for effect.

        “I don’t care how you do it but just get them out of there. There are four each in separate sections of the school. There is one for the pool, one for level one, one for level two, and one for the weight room area and the track. So you guys will break up into groups that I assign and get rid of them. Like I said I don’t care how just do it just don’t get caught,” Stella instructed as if they were simple directions.

        This was basically kidnapping an adult. I didn’t have a clear way of how we were going to get anyone out of the building without anyone questioning what we were going to do.

        Stella had dismissed us from her presence and got back into the car with her fingers on her cell phone. I couldn’t believe how fast she was working her phone. It was time for Sandra and Nancy to finish up her unfinished business of assigning us groups.

        Sandra waltzed over to me and pointing to Jordan and I.

        “You two will be in a group and you need to get the janitor on the second floor,” She said quickly before moving on to the next group.

        Nancy stood in front of me with a stern look on her face.

        “The east wing door is open. You’ll have to try your best not to be seen.” She pulled a walky-talky out of her bag and handed it to me.

        “When you’ve accomplished your goal radio in to us. Once everyone is done you’ll need to open the doors that way everyone can get in.” With little detail she left us.

        Girls slowly started to move towards the east wing and my heart was pounding in my chest. This was taking things to a whole new level. Kidnapping someone was far out of reach of what I ever thought was possible.

        “You know what would be a good idea?” Jordan looked at me before running off to the truck.

        “I bet these would come in handy.” She held up the bags full of duct tape, rope and binoculars.

        Stella really did have everything planned out. Each challenge was intertwined within another and each one was getting increasingly difficult.

        “Are you ready?” Jordan asked unwrapping the items from the bag.

        "As ready as I'll ever be," I replied.